Thursday, November 2, 2017

Hi all! It's been forever since I posted, lol! But, I agreed to put together a tutorial for another guide at our co-op and decided I should share with you all, also! My phone would only take little videos, so I have a few of them.

I enjoyed making these. I may have Mustang help me make longer videos with her camera soon.

These are for the Waseca Reading boxes. We have found this material to be a wonderful addition to the co-op shelves. They are used for Kindergarten (and a rare 4 year old) and up. There are four steps to each box. These videos show the four steps.

Thursday, March 30, 2017

Hi there. I bet you thought I fell off the earth. I did, sort of, well not really, just fell out of the blogging world. I'm not sure exactly how it happened. It was a slow processes, but somewhere I just stopped.

I honestly was unsure if I would ever take blogging back up again. But, lately, the bug seems to have bitten again. I don't know if this will be a long term blogging stint, or if a short run will be enough, but I feel like I want to post about things again. So we will see!

I will use this post to update you on what I've been up to. I mean it has been over 2 years...that's a super long time! But, there have been some extremely neat and surprising changes that have occurred in that time-specifically this last year.

If you happen to follow my Facebook page, you did get a little update this past fall, but if you don't I will update you here!

Last fall, a few families in the local large town started a Montessori school! It is a co-op style, with the parents forming the school, board, and teachers. I am the 'guide', and a few other moms are the aides. Two come once a week, one has various rolls, and one is a backup aide. We just meet two days a week, so we aren't a full school, but it has certainly been a huge undertaking!

It has also been a huge lifestyle change for us. Mustang goes to public school 5 days a week. But, everyone else is homeschooled...sorta. We now go to the co-op school two days a week and do work at home at least two days a week. It has a new flow, but has been very good.

We have had so many growing experiences this year, and I'm looking forward to sharing them! Now, I just need to figure out how to get my pictures off my phone and onto my blog, lol. Not seriously, but kinda! My technical skills are a little dusty.

Friday, January 9, 2015

Howdy!! I know have been MIA for over 6 months (well except the super brief, 2 day, attempt at daily posting in November...what was I thinking?). To be honest, it has been a mixture of not knowing where my head is, to not having 2 hands to type with, and not feeling like I had anything worth posting about!

But, we are back, with REAL Montessori (or at least Montessori inspired) schooling. Last semester we used workbooks and curriculum. So, we are finishing up on those and transitioning into more Montessori lessons again. I'm ready!

We started out this year with a new theme for our calendar. We use the Calendar Connections from 1+1+1=1, and we are using the cards that focus on the Arctic and Antarctic. Seems about right, since the high yesterday was all of like 4 degrees, and the windchill was below zero ALL.DAY.LONG.

Our discussions have included ice, glaciers, icebergs, and polar lights. We've also talked about latitude and longitude, hemispheres, and the arctic circle.

And I was thrilled when Mini Cooper, completely on her own, went and found a journal and wanted to draw pictures and copy the names so she could remember her work!!

We had a refresher course with our Little People animals and the Article and Noun presentation. I also presented Grammar Box 2 (which I see I have no photos of).

Working through Grammar List 1. We enjoyed the discussion of what some of the words meant. We even watched a Youtube video of a wringer to learn what that was!

Explorer completely enjoyed getting to work on the Continent puzzle. We also sang the Continent song, which she loved. We used this to talk about where Antarctica was at.

Mini Cooper had a really fun day when she spelled her first word!! She is certainly at a language sensitive period. Always wanting to know how to spell things and write them down. She had no idea it would be possible that she could spell her own word!

When we started pulling out the Montessori Materials, it apparently brought inspiration to the sensorial materials. The girls spent a lot of time building together this week.

For Christmas, Charger got this super cool Snap Circuts set! We will be working on this a lot!

We made the fan fly! Super cool!

We learned about how ice melts by using a fun experiment I found from Art and Creativity. First, we sprinkled it with salt, and then we put food coloring on it.

You could then watch the salt make tunnels through the ice as we watched the food coloring go through the tunnels.

The kids spent a good hour watching their ice cubes melt, adding food coloring, and experimenting. Mustang was adding salt to get hers to melt faster and even pulled out a magnifying glass so she could get a better look. Very fun experiment.

One last little fun activity the big kids have been doing is to play the Oregon Trail. This was a flashback for me and we've all been enjoying trying to get to Oregon without having our oxen stolen, our friends die, or to get sick from dysentery. Lots of strategizing, planing, and discussion has come from this game!

All in all, it's been a great week back! I hope yours was as well! See you next week :).

Monday, November 3, 2014

My father is a minister, so I guess it's probably because of his profession that we were at church anytime the doors were open..I mean he was the one who usually opened the doors, lol. Let me tell you, though, I am so grateful for all those times!

My parents could have chosen a million different paths in life, but they listen to the call of God for their lives. Through their willingness to serve the Lord, not only were hundreds of other people touched...I was touched. I came to know the Lord and His salvation.

I am so thankful to know Him as my savior and so thankful that they know Him, too. I'm so thankful that I have their support in raising my children knowing all about Jesus.

I am so thankful that He is part of our everyday life. I'm so thankful that our holidays and dinners and conversation include learning about and worshiping the Lord.

Some families pass down money or companies or valued possessions (and yes there are a few of those in our family), but I'm so grateful that our family has passed down the most important inheritance they can-knowledge and love of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Sunday, November 2, 2014

Hellllooooo!! So, yes, I've been missing for quite sometime now :). Life is actually going along quite well. I don't know if I'm returning to blogging, but for this month I will be.

My oldest daughter (known here as Mustang) just started her own blog. It's set to private, so I can't share it. But, I have asked her to post each day this month something she is thankful for. She agreed, but only if I did it, too! So, here I am.

Today I am thankful for 1 John 4:19, "We love Him because He first loved us."

Love.

God's love.

Without Him, love wouldn't exist at all.

Without love, there would be nothing to be thankful for.

And, to know that He loved us first...amazing.

To know that He loved us before we even thought of TRYING to be 'good enough' (which we can't do, but at least we could try, right?). To know that He loved us while we could CARE LESS about Him and His plan.

To know that He-God of the universe-stopped what he was doing to pick me up, hold me close, and show ME-teeny tiny, dust of the earth, human-His perfect and FREE love. Amazing.

"We love Him because He first loved us." And I, am eternally thankful.

Thursday, June 12, 2014

If you did not see it on our Facebook page, Miss Quint has arrived!! She weighed 7lbs 4oz and was 21 inches long. She also waited to arrive until I was 39 weeks and 5 days pregnant, making her only the second of my babies to be full term. She had some meconium in her waters and developed pneumonia, but after an extra week stay in the hospital, we FINALLY made it home. I will be getting the full birth story up in the next couple days.

We have been so blessed by our fifth and final addition to our family!! I am so thankful to finally have completed our crew and look forward to what life holds in this next phase of raising our (not so) little family. I hope you all have been having an enjoyable spring!!God Bless,Lisa

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Yep it's dreaded. Sorry that I'm not very encouraging on that one ;). I also realize, that, compared to other 'cleaning ideas' I was doing everything backwards. But, if you were following the other posts, you know that my DH was helping on this room so I was taking advantage of that help to work on the other rooms :).
I was also having aversions to dish soap. How convenient, eh? yeah I thought so, too. Thankfully, with the help of a friend, I found out about a scent free dish soap that was sold at our local grocery store. But, I didn't buy it until I was really ready to start the kitchen. I knew that as soon as I took the job back over that DH would declare me officially healed and no longer do the job. I didn't blame him, I just wanted to be sure I was ready to take on the hardest room in the house.Yes, once again sorry to unmotivate (apparently not a real word) in a motivational post, but the kitchen is (for me) THE hardest room in the house. Mostly, because it is in CONSTANT use, and no sooner are you finished cleaning it that it becomes dirty again. Plus, there's the gross bonus that if you DON'T clean it up, it will attract bugs and other annoyingly gross stuff (mold, etc).I did FINALLY jump in and tackle it, though.Oh! I should clarify that the VERY LAST THING I turned over was the dishes. Day one: I started at one side of the kitchen and cleaned off about 3 feet of counter space. I cleared it off all the way down to the counter top and then scrubbed it really well. Any dishes that I found were just shoved to the sink.Day two: I checked the area I cleaned on day one and cleared it off (takes just a few moments after the initial clean) and wiped it off with a regular wash cloth. Then, I went to the OTHER side of the kitchen and cleared off about 3 feet of counter space. After it was cleared off, I scrubbed it down. Day three: I revisited the first two spaces and then tackled the top of our dishwasher (it's portable so kind of an island). It took more time then it should because it is a total clutter magnet.Day four: I washed off the top of the stove, burners and all *yucko*.Day five: (after revisiting all the previous day's places) I swept up the floor.And Day SIX??? I-at last-took over the dishes. After I had finally recovered the kitchen, my daily routine (as long as I follow it) looks something like this:Clear off counters on one side of roomClear off counters on other side of roomClear off dishwasherEmpty trash if neededGet out a clean wash cloth (place dirty one in laundry)Wipe off all surfaces I also take a swipe at the microwave each day-at first I did just the outside, then added one side of the inside, and added daily till it was cleaned out.Sweep floorMop if neededHave kids unload dishwasher (I don't let them unload it until the counters and floor are all cleaned up, because they have the tendency to drop things or set them on the counters-which is gross if they aren't cleaned first).Load dishwasher Wash any large potsRun dishwasherUm, yeah, the fridge hasn't really made it into routine yet. I tried to start one last week and only got a day's work done. So, I'll be adding that in once I get it tackled ;).And that was one complete pass through the house. I will give more details on how it's going now in my next post :).God Bless,Lisa